The Gavinator

So,

After shifting it around a few times, and having Quinn toss his eyes at it, we have a finished recipe for the "Gavinator, a strong brown Doppelbock". The idea came from a trip last fall to the dog park with a few friends. Our friend Emily has a pup named Gavin. He is best buddies (when they are not eating each others faces) with our dog Malachi. Gavin is a sweet, strong and brown dog and having gotten into the habit of naming our beers after people we know we decided to throw dogs into the mix. Here is a picture of Gavin himself:
What a handsome devil he is, all dressed up and posing for a picture for his Mom. I've been thinking about letting him help with the recipe by humping the primary fermentor, I know he would gladly help us out.

In other "beers we made that are named after people" news, we cracked a bottle new Brad the Braggart Braggot. The first one, in my opinion, had the subtle flavors of being punched in the face with a glove soaked in beer. To put a finer point on it, I put way too much lavender in it. In the new recipe it was decided that a softer approach was necessary. So we still put lavender in it, but just a little. We also put heather and a few other herbs in there to add complexity and make it not do that whole, sucking thing, it did before. I think it may have worked, it is still very young but has some killer residual sugar and complexity. Give it about a year and it should start getting really nice.

---Ricky